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In this blog post, author David Ginsburg points out what I think should be obvious to all educators: great technology will never take the place of a great teacher. As I spoke about in an earlier post, a lot of emotions are involved in the learning process, and a great deal of what a student learns is driven by the teacher-student interactions that take place. When I hear about plans to offer the bulk of a high school student's coursework online, versus in the classroom, I feel we are heading in the wrong direction. Students need face-to-face interaction to be a part of the learning process. A few years ago, our high school offered a credit recovery online summer school program to students who had failed one or more courses during the regular school year. Not surprisingly, the program was totally revamped the following year by adding more teachers to help the students with the online work, since hardly any of the students passed the online summer school courses during the first year they were offered.
So, while effective teachers are vital to a student's success, Ginsburg also points out that effective teachers owe it to their students to overcome any fears about new technology in the classroom. New technologies are what are students are slated to face every year of their lives, both at school and in the real world, so in order to offer our students a well-rounded education, the technology component cannot be ignored. Of course, this involves much work and planning on the educator's part: ensuring that appropriate technology is available and working, becoming familiar with the technology and how to integrate it into lessons plans, being flexible enough to have an alternate game plan when the technology suddenly adopts a mind of its own, and so on. Overall, though, we must recognize our impact on our students' futures, and be ready to combine our "tried and true" teaching techniques with the unfamiliar ground of new technologies.
The original blog post, "Technology: Teacher Enhancement, NOT Replacement" posted by David Ginsburg on July 2, 2011, can be viewed at: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/coach_gs_teaching_tips/2011/07/technology_teacher_enhancement_not_replacement_1.html
Your post caught my interest this week for several reasons. As the technology teacher I have had a great push by the administration to create online courses for students. It is a requirement in Michigan that a student have one class like this, however, I think what an "online class" should be has not been clearly defined. Does it mean no interaction with students? As you remarked, that doesn't meet the needs of all students. Is it a blended course? Some interaction in the classroom, then some online requirements? This seems to make the most sense. Why would one throw students into an new learning experience without scaffloding them, providing them with the tools to be successful.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes get the feeling that school policy makers see technology as the "fix-it" solution and not the tool to enhance learning.